Chapter 1
New Beginnings Part 2.
It was a beautiful day in Konoha. All but one of the “Konoha 14” as they were called, were at Training ground 7. They had been there since early morning as was their ritual, missions allowing. They sparred, worked out and some goofing off. At the moment one of the female members of the Konoha 14 was resting under a tree. She had just finished weapons training with Tenten. Her long midnight hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her metal staff was resting over her right shoulder. It was made of a special metal the channeled elemental chakra. Her lavender eyes watched as Neji and Sasuke sparred. The Hyuuga and Uchiha clans were once rivals, that was until the Uchiha massacre. Sasuke had been a bit of jerk as a certain blond loud mouth would say after that, but that changed over his time with the other members of Team 7, which totaled 7 members now. There was Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura they were the original 3. Then Haku was added after they came back from the Land of Waves. After a while Sai was added. At first Sai was there to spy on Naruto for Danzo’s Root organization. Now he is no longer with Root, It was disbanded after the downfall of Danzo and his exile. He had tried to take over the village when the current Hokage was gone. The quick thinking of Konoha 14 and others had warned Tsunade of Danzo’s plans and it was stopped. Danzo escaped before he could be captured. He was now a missing-nin and has a kill on sight order placed on him. There was also their Jounin Sensei, Kakashi and Yamato. The former Anbu had been added to help Naruto and Haku with their Water jutsu and with controlling Kumara’s power. The blond was on good terms with the tailed beast that was sealed inside of him, but his mother Lady Tsunade wasn’t taking any chances with her adopted son.
The dark haired, lavender eyed young women was watching her cousin spar while she rested. Seeing Neji spar with Sasuke brought back the memories of the man she loved. Naruto had fought Neji in their first Chunin Exam. “Thinking of someone are you?” Hinata looked up at Ino Yamanaka, who had just finished her senbon training with Haku and Sakura. Ino had that “gossip girl” look in her eye and a big smile on her face. Hinata blushed a little and went back to watching the spar. “He has been gone for six months with Master Jiraiya for his Sage training. I miss him.” The blond Yamanaka knew how much Hinata missed Naruto. Heck they all missed their loud blond friend. Ino sat next to her. “I don’t see how you have time to miss him. Between training with us, your team, clan and missions, you should be too busy to sleep let alone have time to miss Naruto. Besides aren’t you guys in contact anyway?” Hinata sighed. “Ya we are, but that is just letters sent through toad messengers. It not the same thing.”
Ino was about to say something when a small toad puffed into existence in front of Hinata. Ino freaked and jumped up, causing everyone at the training field to stop what they were doing and ready for attack. They all laughed when they saw what had happened. “Gosh Ino, you should be used to toads showing up with as much as Naruto sends them to Hinata.” Sakura said almost falling over from laughter. “Not funny forehead! I can’t stand those things.” Ino had never liked Naruto’s toad summons. She tolerated them in battle, but that was about it. Hinata took the scroll off the toad's back and thanked it and gave it a treat. It quickly disappeared and she unsealed the message and read it. As she read her eyes lit up. It must have been good news, as she had a big smile on her face as she jumped up. She also noticed a small seal at the bottom of the letter. She quickly pushed some chakra into it and a silver necklace fell into her hand. It had a pendant on it in the shape of the Hyuga and Uzumaki crest. As she looked at it she noticed another seal on the back side of the pendant. She couldn’t make it out. She had studied seals under Master Seto the same man that had trained Jiraiya and Naruto as well, but she wasn’t as versed in them as those two. As she was looking at it the seal started to glow.
At the village front gate two men had just finished signing the entry book. They talked with the two gate guards and turned to continue on their way. The tall, spiky white haired older man looked over at his younger companion. The young blond had a smile on his face, and the older man knew what that smile meant. “I suppose she got your gift.” He said looking back toward the Hokage tower. The young blond looked up at his Master and father figure. “Ya, she did. I feel the anchor activating.” He then produced a three pronged kunai, tossing it to the older man. And then he disappeared in a yellow flash of light. The older man caught the kunai and laughed. He knew who his student was going to go see.
As the seal glowed brighter. Something appeared in front of Hinata in a bright flash of yellow light. Two strong arms quickly wrapped around her waist and a pair of lips crashed into hers. Hinata’s eyes were as round as dinner plates as this all happened. As the blond man pulled away from the kiss he smiled at her. “You miss me Nata?” He said to her. Everyone but the members of team 7 were on full alert, ready for anything. They lowered their guard when they saw who it was. Hinata looked into the blue eyes that she had missed for the last six months. “How? When did you….” She was excited, shocked and a little scared all at the sametime. “Just a bit ago. As for how I got here to you. That necklace has a marker on it, it is an anchor for me to do the Flying Raijin.” She looked at him puzzled for a moment then she remembered that his father Minato Namikaze was famous for that jutsu. “You finally figured it out then?” She asked. “Yep. Ero-Sennin is heading to the Hokage tower now with another anchor seal.” He told her.
As the others looked on. They noticed that Naruto hadn’t changed that much. He was the same loud, silly man that they had always known. He may have changed his clothes a little. The red coat with black flames at the bottom with the Uzumaki crest and the kanji for oil on the back. He still wore his chunin vest and still had the bracer that he and his team wore. He would always be Naruto no matter how powerful he became. “So dope. I see your back. Think you got time for a spar? Can’t wait to see how much you have learned since you left.” Sasuke said. “Maybe later Sasuke, I need to see mom first. I will meet up with you guys later. “ With that he reached out for the anchor that Jiraiya had with him. “Grab your stuff Nata. Let’s go see mom.” After she grabbed her gear, Naruto snaked an arm around her and they both disappeared in the same yellow light as before.
At the Hokage tower Jiraiya was just entering Tsunade’s office. “About time you two got back. Where is my son?” She asked from behind her desk. She was just finishing up some paperwork. “Oh. he will be here in a bit.” he told her as he tossed the kunai that Naruto had given him earlier. As it stuck into the floor in front of her desk a yellow flash of light appeared and two people materialized. “Hey mom. Sorry I’m late, but I couldn’t wait to see Hinata when I got back.” She stared at the young blond boy and young black haired girl standing in front of her. She smiled and shook her head. “I should have figured you would see her first. So I take it that everything went ok since he is not a stone toad statue?” She asked the both of them. “Of course, you doubted that he wouldn’t learn the Sage Arts.” Jiraiya told her. Hinata recovering from her trip here looked at Naruto with concern. He noticed her worry and smiled at her. “It is fine Nata. Sage chakra has its risks, but once mastered it is powerful.” Naruto told her. She had asked her father about Sage training and he had told her the same thing. He also seemed impressed that Naruto would undertaken such training.
Tsunade came around her desk and look over her son. He had lost some weight and gained a bit more muscle. The training and Lady Shima’s cooking were to blame for that. Bugs weren’t something one eats unless you're a toad or frog. “So I look forward to reading your report and hearing about it later tonight. I am sure you want to go see your friends and rest, because soon you will be back to doing missions.” Naruto kind of frowned on the mission part. After all he had just been through the hardest training of his life, but with the enemies he had running around, he would need all the experience he can get. “Well I kind of said hi to them a bit ago when I found Nata.” He smiled looking at his mother. “I guess I will see you at home then.” With that he hugged his mom and left.
As Naruto and Hinata walked out of her office. Tsunade looked at Jiraiya. “So he is a Sage now and also learned the Flying Raijin. He has come along way.” Jiraiya nodded his head in agreement. “I guess you talking me out of the years long training trip worked out after all.” Between the Elders and Tsunade, the idea of a two and half year to 3 year training trip was out of the question. The elders were worried about Naruto getting captured by the Akatsuki, Tsunade knew that Jiraiya would never allow that to happen. She also didn’t want her son traveling the known world with a man spends his time writing porn books. She signed and went back to her desk. “So any word on the Akatsuki’s movements?” She asked. “Other than them being involved in a regime change here and there, and other mercenary work through out the Elemental Nations no. No word on their plans involving tailed beasts.”
Naruto and Hinata headed toward his house. He needed to clean up from the road and he wanted to spend some time with his friends. On the way there she filled him in on all that had happened over the time he was gone. She told him that she was still working on her training in the Sealing Arts and also her families Jutsu as well as her elemental affinities. Like Naruto she had Wind and Water affinities.She didn’t have as much time as Naruto did with Seals, she learned enough to make her own seals and could identify most basic seals and their function. They made to his home and she followed him up to his room so he could clean up and then they would get something to eat and find their friends. Hinata sat on his bed picking up his copy of Tales of a Gutsy Ninja and started reading it. It was one of the Konoha 14’s favorite books, Sai went so far as make a graphic version of it.
Naruto quickly cleaned up and came out of his bathroom just his pants and no shirt drying his hair with a towel. “You think they will still be at the training grounds?” He asked her. She looked up and gasped. She had seen him shirtless before and they had been intimate for a while now, they still hadn’t gone all the way just some very heavy petting. She quickly closed the distance between them kissing him senseless. He was a little surprised at her boldness. She was not the shy girl he fell for when they were younger, but she could still be emberous easier than most. He quickly returned the kiss with the same passion, his arms snaked around waist and hers around his neck. They both pulled away a bit resting their foreheads against each others. “I guess you did miss me.” he told her. A smile on his face. “I have been without the man I love for six months how am I how am supposed to act when he comes home to me.” She returned his smile. He moves down to her neck, slowly placing kisses down to shoulder. She let out a moan. “We are not going to have time to see the others if we keep this up.” She told him, not really wanting to stop. He stopped and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. He went to finish getting dressed when she stopped him and placed one last passionate kiss on his lips. When she broke away from him she had a playful look on her face and went back to the book she was reading. He was stunned for a second. “Not fair Nata.” He playfully told her. She just pretended to not hear him and continued to read.He quickly put on his mesh shirt and one of red long sleeve shirts he now wore with his black cargo pants and black nin-boots. He finished putting on his chunin vest and his red sage coat. Grabbing the large scroll he now carried everywhere.They walked out of the house hand in hand to find their friends.
Naruto and Hinata were walking back to the training grounds to see what their friends were up to when both of their senses went off. They looked up into the sky to see a giant white bird with black outlines coming towards them. “Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!” Sasuke’s voice could be heard in the distance. Naruto quickly acted and pulled a scroll from is vest, opening it and dropping it. His foot slammed down on it, with the final hand sign. “Sealing Art! Elemental Barrier, Set!” A dome of energy appeared around Naruto and Hinata. A giant fireball slammed into the barrier and was absorbed by the sealing matrix. “Guess they couldn’t wait for us to get to the training grounds.” Naruto was on alert. He looked up at Sai’s ink bird, his eye went wide at the site of the pink and red missile that was headed for them. “Hang on Nata!” Naruto throw a kunai, his other arm wrapped around Hinata and they disappeared in a flash of light just as said pink and red missile smashed through his barrier. “Guess you will have to rework that barrier huh?” Sakura said with a smirk on her face. Sasuke landed next to her, his eyes active looking for any sign of where they went.
“Ya, I know.” Naruto yelled back. Actually he had wanted to figure out a way to build the barrier so it would protect against elemental attacks and physical ones as well. Looking at Hinata. “You ready?” She nodded that she was. They started weaving hand signs. “Water Style! Wind Style! Hurricane Missile!” The two jutsu combined to form one more powerful jutsu and headed toward it’s target.
Sasuke was the first to see what was happening. “Oh crap! Sakura!” She was working through hand signs. “Earth Style! Great Rampart!” A thick wall of earth and stone rose up where she had slammed her hands to the ground. The missile of water and wind slammed into the wall almost destroying it. “That was close. What you say we show them what we have seen working on.” Sakura said with a very Naruto smile on her face. They cast their jutsu. “Earth Style! Fire Style! Earth Dragon Flame Bomb!” The wall morphed into a dragon head and fired earth type missiles at Naruto and Hinata, while Sasuke set them on fire. “Oh! That could be bad! Nata stay close to me!” Working through hand signs Naruto cast another jutsu. Water appeared from all around him, pulling it from the very air. “Water Style! Encampment!” A wall of water appeared in front of them and absorbed the fiery balls of earth. Naruto created a shadow clone and it teleported away. He brought the wall down and was quickly engaged in a taijutsu battle with Sasuke, while Hinata was battling Sakura.
“My, my. Couldn’t wait could you?” Naruto said while he blocked a punch thrown at him. Sasuke smiled. “Of course. The others are good, but I want a challenge. And so far you haven’t disappointed.” The smile that was on Naruto’s face was the one that he had when he was going to pull a prank. Slamming a fist into Sasuke’s stomach and flipping away he dispelled the clone he had hidden. His eyes became yellow and there was orange around his eyes. The pressure from the green colored chakra that was surrounding him was oppressive to say the least. “Ok. That is impressive dope. Is this what you been doing while you were gone?” Naruto just chuckled. “This is called Sage Mode, and you about to see what I can do with it.” With that he took off faster than he had ever moved before and appeared in front of Sasuke. Throwing a punch. Sasuke quickly dodged, but still felt something connect with his cheek. “What the hell?! I thought I dodged that.” Sasuke thought to himself. He looked at Naruto more closely now, the green chakra was built up an inch or so around his body. “That must have been what hit me.” He thought. “Figure out what happened did you? You were always a fast learner. Yes the nature chakra my clone built up is what hit you. It is one of the things I can do in this mode.” Naruto and Sasuke continued there spar.
Hinata and Sakura’s spar was a bit more standoffish. Either wanted to get in close. The Gentle Fist was dangerous in the hands of an expert, and Hinata was an expert. She didn’t just close the chakra points, no she would open some full and close off some that way her opponent would think they could use chakra and when they did, they had very little control over what happened.
With Sakura it was different. She could smash boulders to dust with a single punch, of course she didn’t use her super strength in a spar, but this was not just any spar. Oh no, this was a test to see how far Naruto and Hinata had come in their training. It was also a test for Sakura and Sasuke as well. Naruto’s mother the 5th Hokage had set this up before he returned. As a matter of fact she was watching with Jiraiya, Their Jounin Sensei, the other members of Team 7 and the rest of the Konoha 14 and their Sensei as well. Also watching was Lord Hiashi and Hanabi and Konohamaru and his two friend Moegi and Udon.
“What do you think of Naruto’s abilities Tsunade?” Jiraiya asked. She just smiled. “I guess you are not a half bad teacher. Now if I could just get you to stop peeping on women.” Jiraiya just crossed his arms and sighed. “So mean.”
Lord Hiashi noticed that his nephew seemed interested in the spar that was happening. “What do you see Neji?” He asked. Neji looked over at his uncle then back to the spar. “Naruto’s chakra seems different. As if there was another chakra has been added.” Hiashi smiled. Other than his daughter Hinata, Neji’s Byakugan and insight was powerful. “That.” Lord Hiashi answered. “Is Sage Mode. The training Naruto has gone through, gives him the ability to use nature chakra. It augments his strength, durability and jutsu. He is the one of 4 ninja from this village that have ever mastered it.” Jiraiya smiled at Hiashi’s praise of his student and pretty much son. “There are actually five ninja from Konoha that have under taken this training. Lord First, Lord Forth, Myself, that snake bastard teammate of mine and now Naruto.” Hiashi was shocked that Orochimaru had under gone Sage training. “He never mastered it though.” Tsunade added. “As far as I have ever seen. Naruto has undergone this training to better protect himself against his enemies.” In truth if certain information about him ever came to light, his enemies would double. All of the people present knew about the Akatsuki, a few knew about the other enemies he had.
Hinata quickly dodged the senbon that Sakura was throwing at her. The rest were batted away with her staff. “What’s the matter Hina-chan. You afraid of little old me are you?” Sakura said teasingly. Hinata just smirked. “I can say the same about Saku-chan.” About that time two clones of Hinata jumped out of the ground and attacked. Sakura quickly dealt with them. Hinata finished her hand signs. “Wind Style! Great Breakthrough!” She inhaled, mixing the air with chakra and then exhaled a huge gust of wind. Sakura was slammed back and used her arms to protect her face. As she looked up she was met by two Byakugan eyes blazing. “Gentle Fist! Eight Trigrams, Sixty-four palms!” Hinata lashed out with sixty-four well placed strikes. Sakura on her back, feeling every one of those hits. “Damn! I don’t know why they call it the Gentle Fist. it hurts like hell!”She thought to herself. “You have been hanging around Naruto to long.” Sakura said. “Well, it worked didn’t?” Hinata added with a bit of a chuckle.
An Anbu in a cat mask landed in front of Tsunade, kneeled and offered a scroll to her. “I priority one message from the Hidden Sand my Lord.” Tsunade quickly grabbed the scroll and began reading. Her eyes open wide in surprise at what she read. “Team Seven, Team Eight! Report!” She yelled, stopping the spar and the teams appeared in front of her. “The Akatsuki have attacked the Hidden Sand. They have kidnapped the Kazekage.” This brought Naruto up short. “Gaara!” The anger in him was raising. After the invasion Naruto and Gaara had become good friends, no more like brothers much like him and Sasuke were. Then something else popped into his mind and so had it to Hinata. “What about?” Tsunade stopped him.”There is nothing here on her, also Kankuro has been poisoned in his battle with one of the Akatsuki. Team 7 and Team 8 you are to leave for Suna in the next hour. You are to assess the situation and give any aid you can. Go and prepare for your mission.” With that they all went to leap away. “Naruto.” Tsunade looked at him. “Becareful. You know who and what you may be facing.” This wasn’t the request from his Hokage. No this was the concern of a mother who did not want to lose her son. “I will mom.” He smiled. “I have my team and Hinata’s team, I will come back.” She smiled. “Don’t get cocky brat, and keep that temper in check. I know how close you are to Gaara.” With that Naruto leaped away to get ready for his mission.